Super Scooter
SUPER SCOOTER
—PRESS INTROS '02—
HONDA SILVER WING
Bridging the gap between motorcycles and motor scooters
Phil Schilling
TORRANCE, CaliforniaMOTORCYCLISTS
ALREADY KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT SCOOTERS.
AND IT’S QUITE AN INDICTMENT: UNDERPOWERED, sway-backed contraptions that bury their leafblower engines right below the rider’s butt. There’s more. After normal wear and tear, those donut-wheels and whacko suspension systems produce handling quirks just one trembling step short of peril, right? Finally, most scooters have fashion-designer bodywork that’s as foo-foo and sissified as a Teacup Poodle. What more does a motorcyclist need to know? Real men ride motorcycles and they wouldn’t be caught, dead or comatose, on a motor scooter.
Except, perhaps, for a device like the FSC600 Silver Wing.
Clearly this new 600cc Honda provides a luxury
liner for scooter people who want to trade up. But there’s something more interesting here for motorcyclists. The FSC600 may
well be a bridge machine that takes the experienced scooterist closer to motorcycling and attracts motorcyclists looking for a different kind of ride. Indeed, we’ve discovered many riders with 25 to 40 years of experience do find the FSC appealing. Whether this appeal will cause cash registers to ring, no one really knows.
Straight on, the Silver Wing looks motorcycle-like, with its big fork, separate fender, headlamp arrangement and cowling that mimics a motorcycle fairing.
Seen in a rearview mirror, the Wing resembles a highperformance sportbike. Only from the side do the FSC’s
step-through design and small wheels identify it as a scooter, although one large enough to roll on a cruiserlike 63-inch wheelbase.
For those still thinking “just a scooter,” the engine performance will astonish. The Silver Wing deals with stop-and-go city traffic with unquestioned authority, and one-up freeway cruising at 75 mph feels effortless, with an easy reserve surge to 85. Top speed, according to Honda spokesmen, surpasses 100 mph.
Power source is a fourstroke, liquid-cooled, fuelinjected, dohc, parallel-Twin displacing 582cc and producing a claimed 50 horsepower at 7500 rpm and 37 foot-pounds of torque at 6000 rpm. In this fourvalves-per-pot engine, both pistons rise and fall together, and consequently I londa engineers rubber-mounted the engine and employed twin counterbalances to quell vibration. The cylinders cant forward in laydown position, and the crankcase does not incorporate a motorcycle-style clutch and gearbox aft of the crankshaft. Instead, the left side of the crank feeds directly into a new generation of Honda’s automatic
belt-drive system, which is contained in the left member of the swingarm.
Given the engine’s size, weight and power, Honda engineers abandoned orthodox rear suspension for scooters. The 1986-2000 Helix, for example, mounted its 250cc engine right in the swingarm, with the pivot-pin for this long arm located in front of the engine. The Helix layout, if applied to the FSC600, would have caused a huge problem in controlling unsprung weight. The Silver Wing has a massive alloy swingarm that pivots off bosses in the engine crankcase, the pivot axis exactly in line with the crankshaft axis. Thus, the 600’s engine is factored out
of the unsprung weight equation. Up front, the Silver Wing's 41mm trail ing-axle fork matches the rear suspension's 4.7 inches of travel. Generous wheel travel befits the FSCÔOO, which weighs more than 500 pounds wet and has a GVWR of 891 pounds. Without straining, the Silver Wing can propel 366 pounds of rider, passenger and gear down the highway at a sustained 80 mph. This prospect partly explains why the 600 has huge wheels by scooter stan dards. The Wing mounts a Bridgestone 120/80-14 front and 150/70-13 rear tire; the
i .. i cai iii c, uic actual running widths of these are comparable to the tires fittec to the firstseries CBR600F Hurricane. Wider and longer than a current Inter ceptor 800, the Silver Wing is nevertheless easy to maneu ver and lever around in the garage, thanks to its high and wide bars, step through design, 29-inch saddle
height and the low-down concentration of its weight. Reasonable effort rolls the Silver Wing on and off its centerstand. With the engine idling, nothing happens until the rider opens the throttle and the revs reach about 2200 rpm. Then the Silver Wing begins to move deliberately but not suddenly, and that's by design. Acting on speed and throttle settings, the ECU retards ignition timing up to 15 mph, thus prevent ing abrupt or unintended acceleration. Beyond 15 mph, the goof-proofer relin quishes control, and the FSC600 accelerates sharply. Another feature of the Silver Wing also requires a little rider adjustment. The
integrated braking system operates off the “clutch” lever and activates the dual pistons of the rear caliper and one piston of the threepiston front caliper. The right-hand brake lever works the other two pistons in the front caliper. In braking, the normal rider reaction is to use only the right hand-lever and front brake. Rolling to a stop, motorcycle riders must learn to avoid the instinctive application of the “clutch” lever, a mistake that can produce a low-speed stop of amazing force.
Unlocking and raising the seat reveals an illuminated 55-liter cavern, suitable for stashing a couple of helmets, or some groceries, or a lot of crosscountry gear. Up front, there’s a lockable 6-liter compartment and a small 1.5-liter stowbox. And, of course, the Silver Wing has an accessory outlet to power an electric vest or cell phone.
In the Honda lineup, the Silver Wing’s wide and spacious split-level saddle ranks second only to the Gold Wing’s salon couch, and the FSC’s seat has a five-position adjustment for the rider’s backside-bolster. Long floorboards allow dozens of foot and leg positions. The front envelope keeps windblast off legs and torso, though the rider’s hands jut out into the windstream making warm gloves necessary on chilly days. Lanky riders
may get a little helmet buffeting off the windscreen and wish it were a bit taller.
On better-than-average blacktop, the Silver Wing delivers a luxurious ride.
But when road surfaces get choppy, coarsely patched or broken, the front suspension could use greater compliance. At open-road speeds on broken pavement, the suspension feeds sharp jolts up the fork, into the bars and handgrips, making a rider wonder why, for $7499, the Silver Wing doesn’t have more sophisticated and supple suspension, front and rear. The only adjustment is the fiveposition spring preload on the twin rear shocks.
The Silver Wing lacks the in-town agility of small scooters, but on smooth boulevards, two-lane blacktops and interstates, the FSC600 rules. More than any scooter in our experience, it’s stable, serene and composed at speed. No crosswinds upset the Silver Wing, and it’s largely indifferent to wind-wakes from semi-trucks. This machine is fully capable of running sea to shining sea; it’s that fast and powerful, that free of vibration and racket, that comfortable and complete.
Time will tell us whether Honda has indeed built a bridge between cycles and scooters. For now, the Silver Wing may simply require a lot of riders to rethink what they’ve always known about motor scooters.
